The Spring
by Perhelediel
Summary: Yuna is on a short trip to revisit all those places she never thought she'd see again. But more than just memories await her as she finds herself back in Macalania. The sphere pool captures moments, doesn't it? OneShot [TidusYuna] PostFFX, PreX2


Author's Note:

Hello, everyone. I'm back with a short, rather angsty and fluffy one-shot. This takes place about a week or so after the final events of Final Fantasy X. Yuna wants to visit all the places she'd been with the notion she'd never see them again, and this brings her back to Macalania, of course. But little does she know, that more than just her memories await her there...

Disclaimer: I do not own FFX, the characters, or the song Suteki da Ne. 'Nuff said.

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The Spring

"Macarena? Why would you wanna go there, of all places?"

"Dad. It's Macalania."

"Sure it is. Why does Yuna want to go there, then, huh?"

Yuna toyed with her silver necklace nervously. Cid was leaned against the oscillo-finder, eyeing her curiously.

"No reason. I just…wanted to see it again."

Rikku beamed. "Yeah, c'mon, Dad, don't be such a party pooper. Last time Yunie was there, she thought she was never gonna see it again."

Yuna blushed slightly, but nodded emphatically at her uncle. He gave a defeated sigh and pushed off the sphere in the center of the airship bridge, turning to the pilot.

"Rayt du Sylymyhey, get! Vimm cbaat yrayt."

Brother turned in the seat, giving his father a rather patronizing look.

"My talking…better. Oui don't need to talk Al Bhed so--so much, ya?"

Yuna stifled a small giggle. Her cousin blushed furiously, and turned back to the controls, the backs of his ears a deep red.

"Yunie," the blonde teenager said, taking her cousin by the hand. "Why did you leave Wakka and Lulu in Besaid? Don't you miss home?"

Yuna smiled softly, the beads that hung from her obi bow clicking together as the airship dipped a fraction in the turbulent wind.

"I do miss home…but I have some things I want to do first," she said. The younger girl looked slightly bewildered.

"Besides…I don't need people there gawking at me just yet," she said, laughing. "The new statue will be up, and it's gonna be…kind of awkward."

Rikku smiled brightly.

"That's right. Gee, who on earth would want the honor of being the first high summoner to get the title and still be alive? Not me! Oh no, I don't want everyone in Spira thinking I'm the most wonderful person in the world and having a statue made of me," she said sarcastically.

Yuna blushed deep scarlet at this comment, and Rikku laughed and hugged her lightly.

"I know, I know…it's tough being famous. It's okay," she said firmly, pulling away and holding up her right fist, in which her metal claw weapon was clenched. "I'll protect the High Summoner Yunie from the mobs of screaming fans!"

Yuna laughed, the first time she truly had done so in over a week.

It still hurt, inside. Her expression softened as Rikku became occupied by a small boy who walked in, completely masked in a wetsuit of some sort. She couldn't see his face.

"Shinra, where have you been? E fyc muugehk vun oui!"

Yuna walked to the oscillo-finder and leaned on its round surface, crossing her arms and nestling her chin on top of her hands.

He hadn't heard her whistle.

She hadn't expected him to, really. Was she really that desperate, that day in Luca? It didn't feel right, somehow.

She had been giving her speech as the High Summoner who finally vanquished Sin—permanently this time. But it had felt wrong. Just…wrong.

He should have been standing there beside her.

It was really because of him, that Sin was gone. He'd given her the courage to keep going when she had considered seriously, for the first time, abdicating her pilgrimage. He was the one who touched the fayth, the one who had heard of Sin's only weakness.

The one who knew Sin as his father.

If it hadn't been Jecht, maybe they never would have gotten as far as they did. Sin under any other influence could have crushed all seven of them on their way out of the Zanarkand Dome just two weeks ago…but it didn't. He let his son live.

It had really been his doing, defeating Sin. He was able to stare it in the eye. He knew he wouldn't survive…

No, he wouldn't die. He would disappear. Worse than dead—more like ceasing to exist. Never to return. Ever.

Yuna drummed her fingers on the smooth glass of the sphere, her thoughts turned inward. She could still remember the feeling—his hands taking her by the shoulders and kissing her tears away. His strong arms encircling her, protecting her. The warmth of his hand clasping hers as they walked to the campsite together to rejoin their companions.

She closed her eyes. His face was still there, clearly in her mind's eye, able to be called at will. She wasn't sure how much longer she'd remember his clothes, his voice…

Which was why she was going back. Back to the place where she was sure she'd fallen in love with him. Tidus.

The spring…

* * *

"Eesh, it's freezing!"

Rikku rubbed at her bare arms, following Yuna with short, shuffling steps. The small grove in Macalania was covered in a fresh layer of frost; each step they took scattered glittering pieces of earth in a soft crunch.

"It's not so bad, really," Yuna said, folding her arms inside her long sleeves. "It's warmer near the pool."

Rikku mumbled to herself as they neared the spring. Though once they got near enough to the bright sphere suspended in the tree's branches, she felt noticeably warmer.

"Ooh…I forgot how pretty it was, you know?" Rikku said softly, awed.

Yuna smiled, her boots sinking slightly into the damp earth near the edge of the spring's waters. The pool sparkled with an ethereal glow, tiny shimmering pieces of sphere material drifting about lazily on the surface.

The spheres!

"Isn't this where we found Sir Jecht's sphere?" Yuna asked suddenly, turning to Rikku, who was still feverishly rubbing the skin on her arms as goose pimples appeared in the cold.

"I think so. I don't think I'd ever seen a face like that before," Rikku said, smiling brightly. "Tidus looked like he'd been smacked in the face after he finished watching it."

Yuna laughed lightly, remembering. She sighed, before bending down to unzip her leather boots.

"You're not gonna go in, are you?" Rikku asked incredulously, still shivering.

"Sure I am! I did last time I was here…it wasn't that bad," Yuna responded, blushing slightly. It wasn't as if she'd been alone in the water—his presence had been warmth enough.

"It's freezing!" Rikku complained.

"Why are you so cold? I'm the one who lives on the tropical island! I should be the one cold!" Yuna laughed.

Rikku stood up straighter and pouted. "I live in the desert, Yunie. And when I don't—I live in machina! It's always warm there…you get used to it!"

Yuna nodded, smiling, and tossed her boots onto a flattened stone nearby. Taking a deep breath, she stepped bravely into the pool. Cold pricked her skin immediately, but as she came in nearly up to her shoulders, she felt it was warmer beneath the surface than above.

Rikku had retreated to a nearby tree stump, curling up over her knees and humming to herself.

Yuna took a deep breath and plunged underwater. She opened her eyes, her chestnut hair flowing in and out of her line of vision as she stared at the rock formations beneath the plateau she stood on.

_Forty seconds…forty five seconds…_

She pushed up to the surface again, gasping for breath. She still couldn't hold it for very long…she was out of practice. She'd occasionally played in the ocean with Wakka when she was little, as he taught himself to blitz.

Rikku was bent over something near the shoreline of the spring. Yuna swam towards her, straining her eyes to see.

"What do you have there?"

Rikku looked up, carefully picking up the object between her feet.

"It's a sphere! But it looks like it's broken. All the water's spilled out of it," Rikku replied, tilting it left and right so a trickle of the remnants sloshed into the pebbly ground. "It looks like the base fell off."

She picked up a small disc made of flexible metal, turning it in her gloved fingers.

Yuna tread water near the shoreline, her toes brushing the pebbly bottom.

"Rikku…you think you can fix that?"

Rikku beamed. "Sure, no problem! This is easy stuff."

She frowned suddenly, looking back up at Yuna.

"Why?"

"…doesn't the sphere water record moments? Isn't that what video spheres are suspended in?" Yuna asked tentatively.

"That's right…I think. What, you want to see if any of this water holds anything?"

Yuna smiled. "Exactly."

Within a few minutes, the blank sphere was assembled again. Rikku held it out proudly, and Yuna took it, sinking slightly in the water as she stood on the bottom. She cupped it in her hands, thinking hard.

"Wait here," she said, and turned and dove underwater. Rikku stared after her, bemused.

A few seconds later, Yuna's head broke the surface of the pond again. She was quickly screwing the glass hemisphere back into the base, which was now sloshing loudly with water.

"What're you doing, Yunie?" Rikku asked, cocking her head.

"I want to see something," she said, wading out of the water and onto the shore. She knelt, putting the sphere on the pebbly ground gently. She pushed a small crystalline button, and the sphere began to play.

For a moment there was nothing except the lingering image of the glittering waters, the occasional light beam illuminating the sphere's projection. But suddenly she saw something else.

A yellow sneaker, and a rather tan leg.

It disappeared as quickly as it had come. She stopped the sphere, rewinding it to the beginning.

"Did you see that?" she asked, almost breathless with excitement. Rikku nodded emphatically.

Yuna looked back up at her. "Er, Rikku, didn't he teach you--"

"Two steps ahead of you, Yunie," the blonde said, grinning. Concentrating hard, she put her hand over the smooth surface of the sphere.

"Slow," she whispered, and threads of light spread from her fingers and enveloped the sphere.

"Thanks," Yuna said, pressing the button again with trembling fingers.

This time, the pair of yellow-sneakered feet swam by much more slowly. Yuna's eyes narrowed as they disappeared out the other side of the projection.

It was definitely him.

"Yunie! That…was Tidus, wasn't it?" Rikku asked incredulously. Her cousin nodded, still staring in disbelief at the small domed artifact in front of her.

"You were here, then? After we got out of Bevelle, we asked Tidus to go look for you, and…" Rikku said, trailing off. "Oh…so this is what you were doing."

She smiled slyly and crossed her arms. Yuna flushed bright pink and muttered something indistinguishable.

"It's okay, Yunie! I think it's adorable."

Yuna looked up at her cousin, smiling genuinely.

"Well, this is pretty neat, you know?" Rikku said. "Now you have one little piece of Tidus to remember him by. You'd better save that sphere!"

Yuna nodded slowly. "I wish it weren't just his…_sneaker_…"

"Well," Rikku said slowly, thinking. "If you wanted anything clearer, and you guys weren't anywhere except the pool, it might take you months to find the exact right sphere water for that moment. This was just sheer luck, I think."

"I guess you're right," Yuna said meekly, her head hanging over the sphere in her lap.

"Well…let me try once more."

She stood up, spilling the contents of the sphere regretfully into the pool again. She moved along the shoreline, thinking, when she felt a splash beneath her feet.

Yuna saw there were several footprints left in the soft earth, filled with the sphere water. She traced them with her eyes, seeing them start from far behind them and finish in the water. But there was another set.

And handprints. Faint, but just visible. As if someone had been sitting here, on the shoreline, propping themselves up with their hands. They weren't fresh, but it hadn't been long since they'd been imprinted.

Her heart fluttering with excitement, she bent and carefully filled the empty sphere with the water left stagnant in the prints. It hardly was enough to touch the top of the half-dome, but she screwed the base back on when she was sure she'd collected it all.

Sitting down on the spot, she turned the sphere on, nestling it in her lap on the soaked navy fabric of her skirt.

She could see hardly anything, except the tops of the trees and the edge of the moon. The sphere water had caught only the view above.

"No luck," she said, disappointed. But then…

She gasped, her hand flying to her chest, as she heard talking. Familiar voices.

"…I could do anything I wanted to. And yet…even if I was with you, I could never forget."

Yuna's heart stopped for a fleeting moment. Her fingers clutched at her necklace. She felt lightheaded, dizzy.

"Hmm."

Her heart leapt. She knew that voice…

"I'll come with you! I'm your guardian!"

Yuna felt her eyes become hot, tears forming in the corners against her will. She shut them tightly, concentrating only on the voice echoing out of the sphere.

"Unless I'm…er, fired."

A light laugh filtered through the sphere's recording. Yuna hardly felt Rikku come up beside her and kneel, her hand on her shoulder. Her eyes were still screwed tightly shut.

"Stay with me, until the end…please."

"Not until the end…"

Yuna opened her eyes, tears escaping and sliding down her face, intermingling with the beads of water that still clung to her from the spring.

"Always."

Yuna choked, half a happy laugh and half a sob. The sphere still resting heavily in her lap, she brought her hands to her face, wiping away the tears.

"Always, then."

Rikku put her arms about Yuna's shoulders comfortingly, staring at the sphere as her cousin cried silently, fingers now resting lightly on the surface of the sphere. Both waited.

"Maybe…you should head back to camp first."

"Roger!"

Yuna gasped, the tears clouding the edges of her vision. As Tidus had stood up, he'd obstructed the sky. She bent over the sphere, her nose nearly touching the surface, staring at the projection.

The projection-Tidus stood above the recording's viewpoint on the ground, his eyes shining in the moonlight that illuminated him from behind and cast most of his body in shadow. All that was there…was his face, his eyes. He was smiling. Finally he turned and walked away, out of her line of sight. A second later, Yuna watched a projection version of herself stand up and run after him in a matter of seconds.

The sphere fizzled out. All was silent for a moment.

Rikku finally whispered, "You'd better save that sphere."

Yuna laughed heartily, wiping the tears hurriedly from her eyes, a bright and true smile lighting up her features.

"Yes. I think I just might."

Rikku stood up, shaking her head incredulously. She ran back toward the small teleport sphere near the entrance to the spring grove. She tapped it twice, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear as she spoke in Al Bhed into it, calling her father to come back for them.

Yuna stood up, carefully cradling the sphere in her two hands. The breeze blew past her from the northeast, sweeping past her soaked clothing and into her skin, chilling her to the bone. She hardly felt it.

"Not until the end…always," she repeated in barely a whisper, looking upwards to the rose-colored sky.

_Suteki da ne  
Futari te wo tori  
Aruketa nara  
Ikitai yo  
Kimi no machi ie ude no naka  
Sono kao  
Sotto furete  
Asa ni tokeru  
Yumemiru._

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_Isn't it wonderful  
to walk together  
hand-in-hand  
I do so want to go  
To your city, to your house  
Into your arms  
That face  
A soft touch  
Fading into morning  
I dream._

**_END_**


End file.
